Exorcism

Game Designer

Hectic Bite-Sized Twin Stick Shooter, where player life is constantly depleted at an increasing rate. Keep killing enemies and changing weapons to survive as things become more hectic and time alive less.

Project Info

Genre: Arcade Twin Stick Shooter
Project Type: Solo
Timeline: 8 Weeks - 2023
Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Key Responsibilities

Designed and Implemented: Core Gameplay Loop & Combat Dynamics.
Designed and Implemented: 3 Unique Enemies fulfilling different design intentions.
Designed and Implemented: Meta-Progression, reinforcing a Bite-Sized experience.
Designed and Implemented: Onboarding & Audio-Visual Communication.
Designed and Implemented: Local Multiplayer Mode.
Designed and implemented: UI/UX.

To the Game

Core Game Loop

What

I produced the initial concept for a Twin Stick Shooter game, that merges Super Crate Box’s randomized weapons and arcade-like structure with the continuous action and health drain from Post Void, in a hectic and bite-sized format.

Gif of uninterrupted gameplay

The player constantly loses health. This is caused and scaled by a resource called “Exorcism”. This serves as a difficulty scaler, which also influences enemy spawning.

Killing enemies restores health but consumes limited ammo.
Kills in rapid succession reduce Exorcism slightly.

Weapon Crates provide a random weapon with full ammo while restoring health and increasing Exorcism.

Zubek / Onion / Types of Fun

*Chaos Crystals is the name given to the Weapon Crates.

{Talk about strongly intertwined loop?}

Early Design Breakdowns

Do the Work

The player performs 3 main Verbs: Shoot, Move, Dash.
Actions are kept simple to allow players to focus on positioning and moment-to-moment decision-making.

How

I started with research, followed by creating a prototype in machination, breaking down the concept, and validating the loop for a rapid prototype implementation.

Gif of Early prototype

Early In-Engine Prototype

Machination has been a key tool to support the development of the core loop. It enabled me to visualize issues and connections within the tightly intertwined resource loop before the in-engine implementation, making iteration more nimble and time-effective.

It also served as a platform to test out the balancing and tuning of the systems, thanks to a clear visualization of the flow of resources.

Replace “Chaos Crystals” with “Weapon Crate”

Why

Player Experience

Hectic:

The player should constantly be on their toes, and be required to make split-second decisions.

Bite-Sized:

A round should not last more than 3 minutes, while still providing a meaningful experience to the player.

Kinds of Fun

Following the “8 Kinds of Fun,” these elements facilitated enjoyment:
- Challenge
- Sensation
- Fellowship

This tool allowed me to have a better understanding of the players’ motivations, narrowing down the target audience and providing additional guidelines to prioritize work, define design intent, and deliver on the intended player experience.

The ever-depleting health system and all the interactions around it build a sense of insecurity and short-term objectives that create hectic game states where quick thinking is the only tool for a successful outcome.

Hectic Gameplay Gif

The difficulty scaling and progression are reminiscent of the balancing of classic arcade games, keeping the interaction loops concise and delivering the experience in a bite-sized format where the mechanics shine.